12:39 PM,
Feb. 27, 2013

Roger Yang, owner and chef at Kanji in Tinton Falls, tops off a seared tuna and greens dish with a vinaigrette and mango sauce.

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Editor's Note: This is part of a continuing series exploring different ethnic cuisines.

No one who enters the Kanji Japanese sushi bar and steakhouse balks at the owner's Taiwanese names. For Roger and Su Yang, both 58, Japanese food was a part of their Taiwanese heritage.

Su Yang's parents spoke Japanese because the Japanese government controlled Taiwan until 1945. In addition, Su Yang's mother often would make traditional Japanese meals of sushi, rice balls and pickled vegetables, or "inari" - a bean curd bag stuffed with rice, Su Yang said. ...